Optional accessories, such as the 0.7X wide-angle converter, 1.75X teleconverter, and close-up lens, all of which attach in front of the built-in zoom lens via a bayonet-mounted adapter, letting the A710IS grow with you as your shooting needs change and making the camera even more versatile.

The biggest place the A710 IS lags, feature-wise, is in its sensitivity settings. It tops out at ISO 800, which isn't bad. But with so many cameras, even budget snapshooters, pushing up to and past that mark, we would've expected to see Canon's flagship A-series camera go up to ISO 1600.

Given the A-series' track record, we weren't surprised to find that it performed well in our Labs' tests. It took 1.6 seconds to power up and capture its first image, and 1.8 seconds to capture subsequent images without flash. Activating the flash almost doubled that time, resulting in 3.5 seconds between shots in our tests. Shutter lag in our high-contrast test measured 0.35 second, jumping to 1.2 seconds in the low-contrast test--both very respectable numbers for a camera of this class. Continuous shooting was average, yielding an average of 1.7 frames per second for VGA-size JPEGs and 1.5fps for 7.1-megapixel JPEGs.

Image quality was very good in our tests. Colors were accurate, if a touch flat, and the camera was able to capture a healthy amount of detail. Exposures were generally accurate, with only minor blooming in extreme highlights, impressive shadow detail, and little or no fringing.